Pune warms up to natural gas

Around 30 months after Maharashtra Natural Gas Ltd (MNGL) began operations in the city, a host of industries including auto majors such as Volkswagen, General Motors and Mercedes Benz, the Pune Municipal Corporation as well as thousands of households are warming up to the cleaner fuel.

The reception has helped the company post a modest profit for the financial year ended March 2011. “We have achieved a turnaround and entered profitability,” Mr A.K. Mittal, Managing Director, MNGL said, adding that the company had done business worth Rs 32 crore during 2010-11 and was targeting Rs 125 crore during the current fiscal.

Mr Ranchhod Yagnik, Chief General Manager, Marketing and Business Development, said that transportation and industrial segments accounted for over 80 per cent of its business, with commercial and domestic use making up the remaining.

At present, nearly 1,500 four-wheelers, 15,000 auto-rickshaws and 160 city buses have switched to natural gas, and the Pune Municipal Corporation has cleared conversion of its 700-strong fleet of vehicles as well.

Business plan

Elaborating upon the business plan, Mr Yagnik says that by March 2012, MNGL wants to double its present sales of CNG that stand at around 50,000 kg of CNG a day, and quadruple it by the end of 2014.

“We now have 10 fuel stations and want to be near 25 by end-FY12, including five or six independent CNG stations,” he said.

The number planned by 2014-end is 50 stations by when the total investment in the city will be Rs 460 crore.

On the industrial front, Mahindra Hinoday, Lumax and Kirloskar Oil Engines are amongst the nine clients already using natural gas for heating, and work on laying pipelines to auto OEMs such as VW, GM and MB is expected to be completed by November, he said. The IT hub of Hinjewadi will also come under its ambit in a year, Yagnik added.

The company is also in the process of expanding the medium pressure network that will enable supply of piped gas for domestic use. With 1,300 customers to date, MNGL is targeting to bring one lakh households into the fold by 2014-end.

MNGL, a joint venture company between GAIL and Bharat Petroleum, was awarded the licence to operate the network in Pune by the Supreme Court, and the exclusivity agreement ends in 2014.

It is in the process of bidding for two more geographical areas – Khopoli-Lonavala and Pen-Alibag.

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